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In Case You Missed It:

Mechanical assist for heart failure

Published: January, 2008

Left ventricular assist devices offer a new lease on life for
some people with severe heart failure.

In the spring of 2000, Peter Houghton's heart had reached the end
of the line. Ravaged by a heart attack brought on by a viral
infection, it wasn't strong enough to pump as much blood as his
body needed. Given six weeks to live, the 61-year-old hospital
psychotherapist was saying his goodbyes when doctors offered him
the chance to try a new invention "" a thumb-sized pump called a
left ventricular assist device. This titanium turbine would take
over the work of his failing left ventricle, the heart's main
pumping chamber. It was a venture into the unknown. Houghton
wasn't a candidate for a heart transplant, and his doctors
couldn't promise he would survive with the device or predict how
long it would work.